Met Your Match
by TheAllonsyGirl
Summary: The Doctor crash landed in Chiswick, in pursuit of the Seriph, and on doing so, he found and recruited a fiery red head, one regeneration too early. He saved her, but is the Doctor's number finally up?
1. The Temp

The Doctor frowned and growled softly to himself as the TARDIS bumped to a slightly less-than-smooth halt. His blue eyes gleamed, a second later, when he took in the current co-ordinates. Just as he'd expected, he'd landed in Chiswick, and he had business to attend to. He was chasing something, something big. The Seriph had chewed their way through time, leaving a trail of paradoxes and chaos in their wake. The Doctor was always one step behind, but not for long.

"Fantastic!" he grinned manically, his hands rubbing together in glee, as he observed through the sonar capability of the screen, that they had stopped running, at least for now. The one thing that he could guarantee, the one thing he knew he could rely on, was that the Seriph, would need to feed along the way. It was by chance, he'd chased them far enough, even after losing their trail, that time had spat them out so close to him.

He pulled the slick, black, weathered leather jacket onto his broad shoulders, his thin jersey jumper allowing it to glide on with ease. He checked his pockets with haste; sonic screwdriver, psychic paper, TARDIS key, banana. _Check._

"Ready," he uttered to himself, and sauntered to the TARDIS door and pulled open the great, blue door. The air that hit his face was blustery and cool; _Typical Seriph trick. Changing the weather; making innocents more vulnerable to their attacks by either herding them inside for easy pickings, or slowing them as they walk through the streets. Cowards. _He rolled his eyes at his own soliloquized thoughts. He scoured the area, lighting up areas of brick-work and pavement, discreetly for a few seconds, tracking his play-thing. Passers-by barely noticed his presence at all, and as he walked past tall office building, after tall office building, he began to feel uneasy.

He whipped his head around, as he saw the ethereal shape of a Seriph, dart behind a building, that announced itself as H.C Clements. The Doctor, looked around with haste, checking the current people count in the general area. He was relieved to see it was merely two; a jumpsuit-clad caretaker, who was grumbling to himself, as he spiked up garbage from the courtyard, and a red-headed woman, in full black suit jacket, red jumper beneath, a black skirt, and high black, polished shoes. She was talking on the phone, laughing, and being generally loud.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, and began to cross the courtyard. He was going to ask her to go back inside, and from her obnoxious demeanour, he assumed it would be quite the task. He was merely two feet away, when the sentient, ghostly shape began making a beeline for the woman; the Doctor bolted into a run, colliding with the woman, to derail the Seriph's path. The woman screeched, not with fear, but with outrage, her phone clattering to the floor as she used her closed fists to beat at the Doctor's chest.

"Get OFF me, you bloody idiot!" she growled, a slap connecting with his face, which now contorted in pain, mixed with exasperation.

"I was SAVING you. I think 'thank you' is the phrase you were looking for," he climbed off of the woman, and straightened his jacket.

"Don't you try and play games with me, Sunshine!" she straightened out her jacket, and retrieved her phone from the floor. Upon seeing that it no longer worked, she launched it towards the Doctor.

"You broke my bloody phone! I hope you have a flipping good job, because you're buying me a new one," her face blanched, as her anger grew.

"Stupid apes, and their stupid mobiles, I don't know why I bother sometimes. Do you have a name?" he sighed angrily, a mere side-step being enough to avoid the rage-thrown object. This caused the woman to become more infuriated with his presence.

"WHAT did you just call me?! And yes I have a bloody name, it's Donna, thank you very much!" her eyes became narrow and blazing, and she swiped at him again. This one connected, and he winced.

"I called you a stupid ape, just like every other human on the planet," he snapped and rubbed his arm.

"Uh, YOU'RE a human being too, dumbo. What have you been taking?" she rolled her eyes, her hand back in its usual position on her hip, in defiance.

"No I'm not. I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time-Lord," he grinned suddenly; this perturbed Donna slightly.

"What the bloody hell is a Time-Lord?" she sounded both angry, and bored at the same time. He opened his mouth to respond, but the inhuman screech that tore through the fabric of the air, silenced any words he had potentially released into fruition. He grabbed Donna by the hand, her heels hitting the pavement hard, as she scampered after him, quite unwillingly. She pulled against the hand that gripped hers, and raged at him, until she turned around.

Upon seeing the deathly, marred form of what looked like both a shadow, and some form of clear glue creation at the same time, she screamed, unlike any other sound she had ever made. The Doctor felt her close into him, and they ran faster, as there was no longer any resistance.

The Seriph continued to zip through the air, its presence ragged and dominant. It littered the sky with blazing ash, and a smog of grey in its wake. It was gaining on them, it salivated as it tasted the air they resided in, and it stretched out a thin, tendriled claw. It caught a swatch of the woman's hair, tangling it, using it to pull her towards its open jaws, the black voids of its tooth-sockets raw, oily, and alive.

She screamed, and the Doctor pulled her, with everything he had, his hand grappled higher up her arm to gain more leverage. He pulled, and yanked as hard as he can, so hard that he heard a crack, and an agonised scream. The sound of it jarred the Seriph, it recoiled at such a human sound, and the Doctor was able to wrench Donna from its grasp.

He clambered, with Donna in his arms, into the TARDIS, the Seriph lashing and crashing against the TARDIS walls, unable to penetrate the shielding. Even though her entire body was shaking, Donna managed to grapple the console with her one good arm, and her head was spinning. She pulled herself up, and looked around, her eyes wide and feeling delirious, she gasped;

"It's...bigger on the inside...It's FLIPPING BIGGER ON THE INSIDE?" her confusion became unease.

"Your powers of deduction are second to none," the Doctor sniped, a little harsher than he intended. "Give me your arm," he spoke softly and reached out. She stepped back, shielding herself.

"My arm is fine, thank you," she snapped, regardless of the fact her arm was blazing with pain, enough that the edges of her vision were black.

"Right, okay, off you go then," he didn't even look up as he dismissed her with his hand. She frowned and looked at him;

"You what?" she scowled.

"Well, I was under the impression that you know everything about everything,and you don't need my help," he smiled, but it was made up entirely of stridency. He took her arm in his gentle grasp, and proceeded to splint and bandage it. She cursed and complained, swatting at him like he was a particularly persistent wasp. When he was done, he folded his arms, and waited for her to speak, anticipating either gratitude, or an apology.

"Alright, alright. Thank you," she scowled, rubbing her injured limb as she rolled her eyes up into her head, once again. He grinned, mirth and arrogance abundant in the action, and she sighed a weight-of-the-world sigh.

"What the hell WAS that?" she looked at the man before her, and brushed her auburn tresses from her ocean eyes.

"It's called a Seriph. It feeds on human souls," he spoke of things so absurd, as if they were the mundane. Donna looked at him, horrified;

"And you're some kind of doctor/" she tried to lay her thoughts laterally in front of her, metaphorically speaking.

"Not just _a _doctor, but _the_ Doctor; have a flip through a history book once in a while; and there you'll see me," he folded his arms, his face still set in the same inane grin he'd possessed earlier.

"What does that even mean? Are you a doctor or not?" she looked puzzled, her brow knitted into a frown. She tipped her head curiously to one side.

"I'm an alien," he spoke matter of factly, his tone almost bored at the concept of repeating the same information he'd had to iterate for nine-hundred years. Donna's jaw dropped, and she shook her head in exasperation.

"Yes, and I'm the Queen of Sheba," she quipped, a derisive laugh escaped her.

"I'd laugh, but I've actually met the Queen of Sheba; nice lady, wasn't a fan of me though," he shrugged his shoulders and narrowed his eyes curiously, all of a sudden, at the suttle hissing sound that pervaded the air. His sky-blue eyes flitted around the TARDIS console room, a sickening feeling clawed its way through his stomach as his eyes locked upon the far corner.

"No. No, that's...impossible," he gasped and turned to grab Donna's remaining good wrist. From the corner of the room, thick, black oil was spreading, winding into every rivet, slipping across the floor as one sentient force. The Doctor backed away, as quickly as he could with Donna.

"Don't let it touch you, whatever you do, do not let that stuff touch you," he yelled and turned, pulling her with him, through the open-mouth pentagon archway, the rippling tide behind them, slow, yet unrelenting in its pursuit.

"Why? What is it?" Donna puffed as she ran, turning to look at the tide, her heels echoing on the hard ground.

"It's the Seriph; they can morph into one being, a liquid base like this! It should never have been able to get past the shields! Something's wrong with the TARDIS!" he panted, swerving into a room to his right, and pressing a glowing yellow pad beside the door. The steel shutters slammed into place, and the Doctor sighed in relief.

"Are we safe here then?" Donna wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead with her sleeve, and closed her eyes, as she leaned her head against the cold stone of the wall. The Doctor nodded, his eyes fixed on the shutters.

"Yes, we should be, but what do I know? I thought we were safe already," he chuckled nervously, and Donna shot him a glare. The hissing became louder again as the Seriph closed in, swarming and circling like a hungry shark.

"Now what?" Donna bellowed, waving her good arm for emphasis. "That...slime stuff's not gonna go away is it?" The Doctor shook his head.

"Nope, but that's the least of your problems," he spoke in a grey and thin-lipped manner.

"What do you mean?" she looked around desperately, in case it had somehow reached her.

"This room is air locked. Humans can survive in here for about...an hour," his gaze was unwavering, and Donna's eyes widened.

"So either I'm going to bloody melt or bloody suffocate?!" she raged, her glare fixed on the Doctor, who was now backing away slowly.

"Well..." the Doctor began, but his voice trailed away as he saw a trickle of black drip from the ceiling, and onto Donna's shoulder; they had circumvented the air vents.

"We have to get out of here," he hollered as he hammered the pressure pad. As he did, he grabbed Donna's wrist and pulled her with him, through the tide. It was too late for either of them to escape it, and as they ran, flickering images of themselves began to appear behind them, one by one.

"They've cloned us! If we don't stop them, they'll drain us dry," the Doctor wheezed, and he continued on, towards the centre of the TARDIS.

"Oh, well isn't that WIZARD?" Donna growled, her breath ragged in her chest as she ran, she felt her lungs burn, and she blinked away black spots from her eyes.

"There's a way to stop it, but it might destroy the TARDIS," he swallowed thickly, and barreled into a room with angry, foreboding steel doors, once he'd passed a retinal scan. The room was lined with computers and flashing, beeping hardware; Donna didn't know a whole lot about computers, she'd always had Stan to deal with that, back at the office. The Doctor ran over to the main hub; a large computer in the centre of the room, which had wires of many colours, cascading from the back and sides of it. His fingers lithely cascaded across the keys, the machine responding with conversational beeps.

"What are you doing?" Donna looked over his shoulder, making no sense of the open programs and binary coding that scrolled before her.

"Reprogramming the TARDIS to look for unrecognisable alien tech, and when it does, it'll destroy it," his fingers moved quicker across the keys, and red sheets of light began to sweep across the room; it was programmed to recognise the Doctor, as his imprint was stored on its biode nebuliser, and to leave all humans out of the crosshairs.

"But we're safe, it'll know us, right?" she said, a little nervous of his answer.

"Yes," he said uncertainly, never having had to do this before. Images flickered onto the monitors in the room, images of Donna, and the Doctor, filling the screens, their carbon copies, with maniacal laughter, and weeping eyes, their translucent, non-corporeal state fuzzy and grainy upon the monitors. Donna backed up against the wall, gripping the side of the counters on either side, in an attempt to ride out her panic.

The Doctor closed his eyes and held out his hand to her. She looked at it for a moment, and took it, when he opened one eye to prompt her. He squeezed it tight, and in that moment, there was darkness. There was darkness and silence. The Doctor opened his eyes, and felt around the area in front of him.

"Doctor? What's going on?" Donna hissed, and crouched down to the floor.

"It's dead," he said simply, and quietly, silently hoping he could open the doors at least.

"That's good isn't it?" she looked up at him through the gloom. The Doctor shook his head.

"I don't mean the Seriph; it's the TARDIS. They've devoured its essence," he prised at the door with his lean fingers, using all of his might to pull them apart. When this failed, he pulled out his sonic screwdriver, and adjusted the setting slightly, before aiming at the doors. There was a whining groan, and the mechanism that held the jaws of the shutters closed, snapped. Donna approached the door and was stopped by the forceful arm of the Doctor holding her back.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said, his voice in awe and growing fear. Donna opened her mouth to protest, but stopped, the colour drained from her face as she too, looked out of the doorway and into nothingness.

"Get back, Donna, you need to get back, you can't breathe out there. I can, for a while, but you can't. Here, take this," he threw her the sonic, which she caught haphazardly with her left hand. "Open that cupboard there," he pointed, and she did as she'd been asked, fear, being the ultimate driving force. She opened the cupboard under the Doctor's careful instructions, and she pulled out the loose gas cannisters.

"Put the mask on," he ordered; "And don't argue," he added before she had the chance. She did as she was told, and as she breathed in the fresh air, she sighed in relief.

"What...what is that...out there?" she rasped, as she breathed the mixture of oxygen, and slowly mingling toxic air.

"They ripped the TARDIS apart," he shook his head, almost in disbelief himself.

"It's only one side, surely you can fix it? Let's just go back out into that room with the panels, we'll sort it out," she swept her hair from her eyes and looked up at him.

"That's just it Donna," he spoke with a sigh; "I don't think we can," he took careful steps back from the burnt off, torn out wall, back towards to door they'd burst in from.

"Why not? Let's go," she pulled herself up, and as she dragged the cannister, she opened the door.

"It's...it's gone. We're just...floating...in space?" she shuddered. The Doctor nodded.

"It's gone," and as he closed the door, he felt something he hadn't felt for many, many years, not truly. The Doctor was scared, and with the greatest of bitter irony, he laughed, his eyes slightly misted;

"Fantastic..."


	2. Playtime

The Doctor's eyes darted around the shredded remains of the hull of the TARDIS and the inner clockwork of his mind grinded in search of a solution.

"If I can get power to the mainframe...somehow, then the TARDIS can begin to rebuild; I don't know how though I just don't know," he banged his hand angrily against a fraying wall; dust fluttered down from the impact. The Doctor's eyes flitted out into the dulcet ozone and they narrowed a little. He arched his neck towards the sound and Donna looked up at him curiously. Beads of sweat began to roll down her forehead and her eyes were struggling to fixate on anything. The Doctor's superior hearing gauged the sound long before Donna could; it was unmistakable in its drones. There was another ship. The Doctor's hearts fluttered; there was a hope of salvation from whatever passing organisms resided therein.

The silver fin turrets and oval totality of the ship caused Donna's eyes to widen. The Doctor bounded across the fragile grated remains of the floor and waved manically as he yelled to get their attention.

"Hey! Over here! Hey!" he didn't want to be aggressive but he was not above kicking the metal ship if he had to. The green eye of the vaguely shark-like craft blinked three times before turning a palish blue. The door opened and a semi-luminescent being pointed a greyish wand towards the Doctor. He held his hands up in surrender and locked eyes with the creature; or what he believed to be its eyes as they radiated as little more than amber-cloured stones. As an indigo light began to seep through the surrounding area the Doctor's hearts began to race. His vision blurred and he felt his body losing its balance. The world around him became hazy and the sounds around him marred. He tried to turn his gaze behind him to reach out to Donna but he was gone. Donna's eyes slid shut and the world became silent.

Donna could hear a muffled cacophony around her but she had no ability to do anything but listen. She tried to pull one ambling sound from the next but there was no semblance of words within the din. She focused all of her energy into forcing the shutters to rise in front of her eyes or to move her hands; anything would do. She wondered to herself if they had been saved or if this was some bizarre alternative to the afterlife and she was bodiless.

As she fought the gloom she finally centred on the Northern drone that had become almost homely to her ears; the Doctor's voice was to her right. She began to slowly pick up the odd word; her name, help, wake, up. She felt a searing pain in her arm as she realised she'd managed to embody herself again; her broken arm was wrenched backwards and her hands were bound. She felt a feeling of dread trying to creep up her throat and out into the open. She forced her eyes open and as she blinked she felt the world swim back to her. The Doctor's face loomed above her and she tried as best she could to voice her thoughts.

"Where..." her voice came out as a rasping croak and she licked her lips to try and soften the next words she spoke.

"What happened?" she rephrased her question in a hope it made more sense.

"Remember when it was abundantly clear that the world is inhabited by a lot of bad things and a few good things?" his voice was laced with bitterness and insurgency. Her eyes narrowed a little until he continued.

"These were not good things; my mistake," he grinned and slid a thin piece of metal behind her to separate the cable tie that kept her arms hostage. He gently eased her arm back to her side and used her jacket to make a makeshift sling for it to rest in. She grimaced as her arm radiated a burning pain but she did not complain outwardly.

"Where the bloody hell are we?" Donna hissed under her breath and the Doctor merely shrugged.

"I was trying to identify them when they stepped out of the ship but it was lights out before I had a chance to get to it. Seriphs don't act this way; they just don't. That being said; perhaps these are their little henchmen. Seriphs will use groups of mercenary-type pack creatures to capture their targets if they feel intimidated, outsmarted, or even remotely threatened. We got away; they weren't best pleased with that and now here we are," he held his hands out as if he were a waiter without an order to distribute.

"What do those things even want with me? I'm just a bloody temp!" Donna snapped in exasperation.

"Ah, well you see the Seriph have a very specific use for other species'," the Doctor looked at the floor as he anticipated her next question.

"Which is?" Donna spoke quietly knowing she most certainly wasn't going to like whatever the answer was.

"Well...they eat them," he replied matter of factly as if it were normal; although it probably was in terms of the great circle of life she imagined.

"It wants to EAT me?" she squawked and the Doctor quickly silenced her further protests with a hand over her mouth.

"Do you have to shout all the time?" he rolled his eyes and she did too; neither one was best impressed with the other's attitude. He pulled his hand back quickly as she nipped at the skin.

"When I'm about to be bloody eaten by some bloody large lump of bloody goo then yes I have to shout. I'm not a walking buffet!" she rasped and looked around. The room they were stood in was surprisingly bright; the oblong lighting strips ran up the walls in bizarre perpendicular fashion. Their glow alternated from a searing white to a golden yellow. Donna had to turn away; they were giving her a headache. The room was a hexagon shape and the pitted metallic walls made her feel all the more like a prisoner. It felt as if the very room itself was angry and malevolent. The Doctor pressed his hands up against the walls and they pulled away from their pressure; as if the room itself was living. It pulled itself away like a beaten-down dog and it shrunk back as he removed his fingertips.

"That's just weird," he murmured to Donna who was hardly listening; she was on red alert like the terrified prey she now found herself to be.

"What is?" she whispered whilst keeping her eyes fixed on the hexagon-shaped door.

"This room is alive," he replied and took a few light steps to further test his theory.

"Alive? How can it be?" she crouched down slowly as she guarded herself.

"It reacts to touch and movement the same way you or I would; it's...conscious," he continued to take calculated steps towards the door as he carefully scanned the area with his sonic screwdriver. He knew full well that the Seriphs they had been brought to were not above torturing their toys; playing with their food before eating it. He didn't know what they would do but he was sure they would find out soon and that disturbed him to his core. He would never show it outwardly though; he had to be steely and stoic for the sake of Donna.

"You see the scanner?" he pointed a long finger to the scanner which was eye level for him. She nodded and padded over the floor to join him; the floor retracting from her movements as she went.

"It's a retinal scanner," he added and tipped his head to one side.

"Will it recognise us?" she stepped forward but he grabbed her good arm.

"Don't do that, don't ever do that," he snapped and she raised an eyebrow in annoyance.

"It's a retinal scanner; it needs to see an eye, I have two. What is the problem now?" she sounded both bored and annoyed simultaneously.

"Do you like searing pain?" he folded his arms and spoke to her as he imagined a child of five would be best spoken to.

"Obviously not," she spat back and rolled her eyes.

"If that thing makes contact with any eye and it isn't a registered organism; it will be overridden by a cleaning program. When I say cleaning I want you to picture your antivirus software on your computer; it irradicates it completely. It will tear your pretty blue eye out of your skull and chomp it down like an hors d'oeuvre. Capisce?" he shot her a withering look as she sighed angrily.

"Alright, alright fine!" she snipped back at him.

"What are we supposed to do then?" she looked around for anything that could be potentially viable.

"We have to trick it. They might be powerful but they're not necessarily all that smart when it comes to people. And Time-Lords. They don't understand any behaviour that isn't their own; that's why they send their bruisers after their prey. It's no different from telling a teacher at school that someone stole your lunch and them pulling the bullies into the Headmaster's office; only in this scenario the bullies have taken over the school and it's follow or be eaten," he frowned.

"Did that even make sense to you?" she raised a curious eyebrow with her good hand back on her hip.

"Not really, but I don't think we have time to criticise my literary skills right now, do you?" he edged back away from the scanner and looked around. His eyes fixated on a small button by the door.

"I've never been able to resist a good button. Shall we?" the Doctor grinned manically and before Donna could protest he pushed it. A long claxon sound emanated from the speaker system in the corner of the room and a scanner light swooped down. They looked up into the radiant beams and waited. The Doctor listened carefully and after a few moments he heard stomping footsteps coming from the left and towards the door; two sets it sounded like. He heard the retinal scanner spring into action and the door opened. Stood there before them was one of the same mercenaries who had put them here in the first place and what looked like a regular human being. He was gibbering and cowering away from the strangers as the mercenary pushed him toward them. It said nothing as it threw him towards them and turned on its heel leaving him with them. Donna looked at the Doctor and then to their new cellmate.

"Are you alright?" she asked the asinine question even though she knew the response was going to be negative.

"Please don't eat me," he stammered and picked himself up from the floor. He was wearing what looked like a prison uniform; all grey slacks and an over-sized shirt. He was barefoot and Donna could see the reddish abrasions from where she was stood all too clearly. She grimaced in horror as she considered if she'd heard him correctly.

"Eat you?" she gasped and shook her head fervently. The man twitched nervously.

"You never know once you're in here; they'll do anything for entertainment." the Doctor frowned and and scratched his cheek.

"What do you mean? They're entertained by murder and cannibalism?" he spat the words out like bitter lemons.

"Our captors; the Seriph have a viewing room. They gather with their mercenaries and cohort species friends and they watch us," he tugged at an errant thread on his shirt hem. The Doctor's cheeks sallowed a little.

"How very Battle Royale," the irony of the situation was becoming more apparent with every word the man fed to them.

"I suppose it is. Once you're in you never get out. They love to watch us suffer and they even place bets on their favourite drone in a sweep stake.

"They expect us to hurt you for fun? Like...human bear baiting," Donna swallowed the rising bile she felt lining her throat.

"No matter where you run to or where you hide they can find you in here," the man whispered and the Doctor looked puzzled.

"Wait, so we can leave this room?" he searched the man urgently with his eyes for an answer.

"Of course we can; but there's no telling what cruel and unusual dangers are out there. If we don't leave they'll just move their torture into here. I'm not sure what's worse; the torture of their endless trials or the torture of waiting here like sitting ducks," the man's eyes were haunted and sunken in and the skin that they could see was laced with a map of scars and angry welts.

"But what about the scanner; we have clearance?" Donna looked at the man puzzled.

"We have free roam within this compound for what little good it will do us," he let out a bitter and frightened squeak of a laugh.

"Come on then! What are we waiting for? I love a good fight; lead the way...what's your name?" the Doctor's eyes had become glittery with fire and determination.

"Jameson. Matt Jameson. You're awfully happy for a man who just became a walking target," Matt looked at the anomaly of a man before him as he allowed himself to consider the possibility of a team effort without the survival of the fittest mentality.

"Oh Matt there's something that the Seriph just don't know about me. They know there's something not quite right but they have no clue what it is; and that makes them a game to me. Are you following?" The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began adjusting settings with fervor.

"I'm really not," he spoke bluntly and looked to Donna for some kind of clarification.

"He's not human," she gestured to the Doctor with her thumb as she spoke.

"He's not human?" Matt looked a strange kind of baffled yet horrified at the same time. Donna nodded still not half believing what he'd told her earlier that day either; if she hadn't seen it all herself she'd have locked herself up for having such absurd thoughts.

"I'm a Time-Lord. Do you hear that? I'm not one of your little human pawns; I'll put an end to your theatre of cruelty and still be home in time for a hotpot," the Doctor spoke up towards the speakers even though he assumed his words had fallen upon deaf ears.

"Time-Lord?" Matt questioned once again and scratched his dirty blonde head of hair.

"Alien. I'm a good alien; the best quite frankly," he grinned and bounced over to the retinal scanner. He stared deep into it and remained there until the red wash of light had imprinted on his sky-blue iris. The doors pulled open and the Doctor summoned them as he disappeared out of the door. Donna forced her legs to run after him and Matt stumbled as fast as he could so as not to be left alone again; the last time was enough of a nightmare etched upon his psyche and he was sure that what little was left of his mental elastic would snap if it were to repeat. A speaker echoed through the halls with a a message. The voice sounded demonic and yet somehow childlike in its tonality.

"VIEWING WILL COMMENCE IN 5...4...3...2...1...LEFT SECTOR 7 CHANNEL 685," the announcement boomed and the Doctor reached behind him to ensure his companions stayed close.

"I don't know what's going to happen but I can assume that this isn't good for us?" the Doctor assumed Matt had heard many such announcements.

"It means they know we're out of the room and they're going to send something...do something," he swallowed thickly and whipped his head in every direction on full alert. It didn't matter. The floor beneath them shot out from underneath them and they fell. Donna screamed and managed to claw at a corner of the Doctor's leather jacket. He kept as firm a grip as he was able to on Matt's left hand and Donna's hair. She yelped in pain but it was worth it for the assurance that she would not lose him. It felt like several days before they landed and when they did, Donna screamed out as he felt her bones connect with what appeared to be solid concrete. The Doctor winced as he pulled himself up from the ground; his non-human status had caused him to remain relatively unscathed. Matt had landed upon the Doctor so his impact level had been minimal. They looked around their new surroundings although there was very little to see.

The ground was a dark greyish colour and marred with a deep red that made Donna's stomach churn; blood. They were in the centre of a giant half-sphere and the walls were at least twenty metres above their heads. The Doctor squinted as he saw what looked like foot holes in one side of the sphere and he made a dash for them. As he approached them he heard the ever so slight sound of a few small stones clattering to the floor. He whipped around but all he saw was two very frightened human beings. He ran his hands over the bumps and saw that they were scattered all the way up to the very top; he didn't imagine it would be as simple as scrambling up the wall; there had to be a trap for them.

"Can we get out?" Donna asked meekly; a trait unknown to her very being before this day.

"It looks that way; so probably not," the Doctor replied grimly as he started back towards them. He felt the air in front of him shift a little and once more he whipped around like a vigilant guard dog. In that second every tiny remnant of light vanished. The Doctor reached out to pull Donna and Matt behind him and he waited for it; his eyes fighting desperately to focus on something, anything. The sound of metal grinding made Donna jump out of her skin. She was shaking like a leaf and bordering on tears from the terror of the unknown. This was a new feeling to her and she did not like it. She cursed the angry tears that had begun to force their way down her cheeks. The Doctor squeezed her hand just once to reassure her he was there.

They felt the air pushing down against them and the Doctor pulled them out of the downflow. The lights began to frazzle and flicker on and off. When they finally settled into a dim glow, the Doctor pushed Donna and Matt back against the concrete; not in an attempt to hurt them but as an attempt to defend them against the bizarre situation that was now unfolding. The dreaded metal shredding they had cowered from was emanating from two giant blades that had descended into the sphere; the Doctor swallowed thickly as he realised the gravitas of the situation. It was becoming all too clear to him that the blades were giant whisk beating blades and the sphere was merely a gargantuan mixing bowl.

"So this is what Matt was talking about," the Doctor murmured as he darted back to his companions.

"The second you see which way those blades are moving you run! You run to those pitfalls over there and you climb," the Doctor roared over the noise; the blades were gathering momentum and would begin their assault in a matter of seconds.

"What if we fall?" Donna screamed back and looked up at the twenty foot high edge.

"You die," the Doctor hollered back grimly and gave her a solemn look before grabbing her hand. Donna grabbed Matt's hand and together they moved like a daisy train caught in a tornado around the inclined edges. The Doctor broke off and followed the motion of the blades in an attempt to discern how much time it took for them to reach one full rotation; in doing so he figured they may have a chance of escape. Matt was beginning to lag behind Donna and although she was pulling him with all of her strength; she couldn't do it indefinitely. Her heart threw itself against her rib cage over and over and her lungs burned from the exertion of literally running for her life.

Donna reached the pitfalls even before the Doctor and she tore her hand back from Matt's.

"Doctor!" she cried out; her one arm was still bound and even the slightest movement caused her pain. She knew if she had any hope of surviving she had to use it. She pulled her hand into a reach and she winced at every motion. She used her other hand to close her fingers around the first pitfall and with an agonised scream she pulled herself up. She took a look behind her and gasped as the Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver up at the blades. He jumped back as he did so and the blades stuttered for a moment as the signal interfered with it. Donna clambered easier with her good hand; it didn't matter the blades were coming right for her. She scrambled and grappled for the next pitfall and the next one; Matt was behind her but he wasn't quick enough; she just knew it. She pulled herself as closely as possible to the concrete and silently begged for her life. She felt the blades sweep past her, catching the back of her coat. She yelped but sighed in relief as she felt no pain; it was only the tan leather that had suffered decimation; at least on herself.

Donna did not want to look behind her; the soul-destroying scream behind her and the mist of warm liquid against her back and her hair was enough to know what she already knew without visual aid. Matt had been too slow he couldn't do it. As she finally found the courage to turn around a strangled cry found its way from her throat. Her hand flew to her mouth and she placed her bad hand upon the next pitfall to steady herself. The Doctor had noticed but he had not acknowledged it because if he lost concentration for even one second he'd be mincemeat too.

As Donna forced her body to work against her broken bone and her replete exhaustion she found herself above the blades' lethal brutality. She was over halfway there and the Doctor was rapidly becoming a dot to her. Just as she was about to reach up for the next pitfall she heard him cry out for her.

"Donna! Don't stop; whatever you do, don't stop!" she glanced down and saw what resembled other people running at him with something in their hands; blades perhaps? She couldn't tell from this distance. Every instinct she had was to help him; this man had saved her life and here she was scrambling away like a cowardly hound. He had told her to but that didn't mean it didn't go against every part of her morality.

She continued the arduous and caustic campaign for freedom. As her fingers grappled the edge of the sphere she winced and pulled her hand back; broken glass. She used her sleeve to shift and sweep it away as she tried to pull up the final hurdle. She failed more than once and her face was streaming with tears. She had never felt so much pain in her life; searing and tearing in nature. Between the pain in her arm and lungs she felt the edges of her vison cloud with red and black spots. She stumbled up to the ledge and collapsed into a heap barely even registering the remaining broken glass as it blanketed beneath her. She hadn't wanted to sleep but in her final thoughts before she succumbed to the pain she thought to herself how nice it would be to close her eyes just for a moment.

Her pain-induced slumber was shattered by the sound of falling stone and exasperated groans.

"Doctor?" she mumbled lazily as her body remained lucid and liquid.

"Donna please! I'm going to fall!" something in his urgency gave her the strength to push herself towards the edge. She slid upon her stomach to reach out her one good arm to him. She felt behind her with her foot until she located what felt like a pipe to anchor herself. The Doctor's hand clenched hers tightly and she felt her arm lock as the weight of him rested on her will to be strong. She pulled his arm as much as she was able and his feet scrambled against the final pitfalls; they were further apart than they seemed to be from the ground. The Doctor finally managed to pull himself up onto the ledge with his chest heaving from the the effort. Donna allowed her head to drop down to the concrete and the Doctor laid a protective hand on her shoulder.

"What were those things?" she rasped as her voice cracked a little.

"Humans," he replied simply, the mark of having to cause human deaths was evident in his sad eyes.

"They looked...primal," she replied as she brushed a lock of hair from her cheeks.

"They were scared that's all. Did you ever read Lord Of The Flies?" he turned his head to face her.

"I was supposed to," she somehow managed a small laugh and licked her lips gently.

"People do all sorts of things when they're scared; some run, some cry, some lash out...and some do anything necessary to remain in the world. I had no choice Donna; I had to kill them. They were scared and I couldn't do anything...and Matt too. I should have protected him too," his voice was raw and bitter to her ear.

"It isn't your fault," she whispered and squeezed his hand in a friendly manner but he turned away; he was disgusted with himself. He pushed himself up to stand and gently picked Donna up. She protested at first but the fight soon left her and she relented. He carried her to the iron doors which closely resembled elevator doors. The spray-painted words across the doors directed their route;

'COWARDS THIS WAY'

"Coward; every time," he breathed as he pressed the button beside the elevator and it creaked open. It was dark and dingy and he begrudgingly stepped inside. The doors closed behind him and as the last chink of light was snuffed out by the iron he looked up; more signage;

'PLAYTIME'

The Doctor's jaw locked as his anger bubbled. The elevator stopped and the doors began to open.

"Oh no; playtime is over,"


End file.
